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Articles Posted in Medical Malpractice

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Clabsi%20Toolkit.jpgCentral Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections (CLABSI) are often the result of medical malpractice. An estimated 250,000 CLABSIs occur every year in the US with 800,000 of them happening in the emergency room. More than 30,000 people die from CLABSI in the US every year. The CDC estimates that the yearly cost related to CLABSI is $1 billion.

To prevent these infections, the Joint Commission Today released a very useful toolkit to supplement a previously published monograph entitled “Preventing Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections – A Global Challenge, A Global Perspective” . This document provides best practices and guidelines for healthcare professionals who insert and care for intravascular catheters and who are responsible for the surveillance, prevention, and control of infections in all healthcare settings.

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Medication errors in nursing homes are one of the most common types of medical malpractice. Lack of Physician involvement, lack of adequate staff and training are often the reason why significant medication errors are all too common in nursing homes.
Here is an link to an article and a video about medical errors in Michigan nursing homes but there is little doubt that this problem exists at a national level as well.

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Misdiagnosis is the leading cause of medical malpractice claims. 160,000 patients suffer serious personal injury or wrongful death because of diagnostic errors every year. In her recent article “The Biggest Mistake Doctors Make” Laura Landro from the Wall Street Journal looks at solutions that are being developed by healthcare providers and various organizations to reduce misdiagnosis.

New technologies as well a change of culture among doctors are part of the solution. The new healthcare law requiring multiple providers to coordinate care should also help in making sure patients receive a proper follow up. Additional studies such as the one undertaken by the institute of Medicine (See previous blog) or the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine should also contribute to curb this alarming trend.

 

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Even though a lot of tactics are available now for doctors to avoid medical errors the fear of them happening and constant worry about patients can push doctors to the edge. Physicians burnout is a widespread problem.

In a very interesting blog Dr Diane Shanon explains that she was worn down by over worrying about medical errors such as incorrect orders, intravenous catheter left in too long and leading to infection, care providers forgetting to wash his or her hands and spreading dangerous infections from one patient to the other or misread EKGs or X-rays. She suffered such a terrible burn-out that she decided to walk away from her career as a physician.

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Many adverse drug events are preventable and constitute Medical Malpractice. An adverse drug event occurs when a patient suffers injury resulting from medication use. Adverse drug events are the results of medication errors or of known side effects that may happen even if the medication is taken correctly.

According to a recent report from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) and led by Audrey J. Weiss, Ph.D. and Anne Elixhauser, Ph.D. , 380,000 to 450,000 hospitalized patients suffer preventable adverse drug events every year.

According to the most recent statistics, in 2011, the most common causes of ADE during hospital stays were Steroids, Antibiotics, Opiates, Narcotics and Anticoagulants with 8 out of 1000 adults over 65 experiencing one of them while hospitalized.

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Retained%20Surgical%20Items.jpgThe unintended retention of foreign objects (URFOs) is medical malpractice that can cause serious personal injury or death. It happens when a surgical team leaves any item or foreign object related to the surgery inside a patient. Most common objects left behind are sponges and towels, small device components or fragments, needles and malleable retractors. The risk of URFOs is higher for patients with high body mass index, during emergency procedures or when an unanticipated change happens during the surgery.

In a recent sentinel event alert The Joint Commission looked at the causes of these surgical errors and recommend strategies for improvement.

According to the Commission previous studies show that the risk of URFOs can be greatly reduced by the creation and the adoption by the surgical team of a highly reliable and standardized counting system. Effective communication including team briefings and debriefings as well as appropriate documentation and safe technology are also factors that can reduce this type of medical malpractice.

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2013_Hospital%20and%20Physician%20Liability.jpgIn 2014 medical malpractice will represent $0.60 per every $100 of hospital revenue or an average of $135 per hospital admission according to “Hospital and Physician Professional Liability Benchmark report” recently released by Aon and the American Society of Healthcare Risk Management.

According to the report the number of medical malpractice claims and their costs are expected to remain stable in 2014.

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medical_device_alarm_safety_infographic.jpgHere is the 2014 top 10 Health Technology Hazards just released by the ECRI Institute. This list is developed every year and highlights the health technology safety topics that the ECRI Institute’s Health Devices Group believes warrant the most attention for the coming year.

TOP 10 HEALTH TECHNOLOGY HAZARDS FOR 2014

1. Alarm Hazards (click on infographic to enlarge)

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Babies recently born in St Luke’s Hospital in New York may have been exposed to tuberculosis, a contagious and potentially deadly disease. The negligent hospital began notifying parents yesterday that a maternity ward worker tested positive for tuberculosis and that their babies should be tested for the disease. The hospital did not comment on how far back the exposure spans but the parents who notified NBC 4 New York about the infection gave birth more than two months ago.

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A recent study looked at the medical malpractice claims of the 2 largest insurance companies in Massachusetts during five years. The study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine and led by Doctor Gordon Schiff (Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s Division of General Internal Medicine and Primary Care) looks at patterns of primary care malpractice types.

During the five years under review there were 7224 medical malpractice claims of which 551 (7.7%) were from primary care practices. Out of these 551 cases, researchers found out that most medical claims were failure to properly diagnose a condition (72.1%). Other malpractice claims were related to medication errors (12.3%), medical treatment errors (7.4%), failures to communicate properly (2.7%), patient rights (2.0%), and patient safety or security(1.5%).

According to the author “many of these claims “appear to be due to failure in more routine yet high volume outpatient office processes”. The study also found some evidence suggesting that “outpatient primary care in general and diagnostic cases in particular were less defensible than other malpractice claims because they were significantly more likely to be settled (35.2% vs 20.5%) or result in a verdict for the plaintiff (1.6% vs 0.9%) compared with non–general medical malpractice claims.

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